Tuesday, June 3, 2014

More newspaper layoffs at another Stephens property

Journalism websites are buzzing today with news of big layoffs in the newsroom of the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram, purchased recently from Boston billionaire John Henry by the Dayton, Fla.,-based Halifax Media Group. One of the equity investors in Halifax is Stephens Capital Partners of Little Rock. It is an invesment apart from its own Stephens Media, which has been downsizing considerably in Arkansas recently, including recent layoffs at the Fort Smith daily newspaper and Central Arkansas weeklies.

Investors apparently still see profit in newspapers — with enough firings of employees.

Another Arkansas angle: John Henry, who owns the Boston Red Sox, spent some of his youthful years in Arkansas as the child of soybean farmers who spent time split between Illinois and Arkansas. He finished high school in California and made a fortune as a commodity futures trader and investor.

The Arkansas Democratic Party has waded hip-deep (maybe over its head) into the suddenly hot issue of Confederate statuary. It has called for removal of such monuments to museums or private places.

Another member of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's senior staff is heading for the exit. Kelly Eichler, senior advisor for criminal justice (and a Hutchinson appointee to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees) has given notice she'll be leaving in a couple of weeks.

A state audit finds charter school spending violated state law, but the state Education Department says it has no responsibility for ensuring proper management of charter schools. Say what?

What's purported to be a final-words essay from condemned prisoner Kenneth Williams was distributed today by Deborah Robinson, a freelance journalist in Arkansas. He reflects on his execution, his victims, reactions of inmates and big servings of fried chicken, which he says are given to all inmates on execution days.

The Arkansas Public Policy Panel is urging supporters of the Little Rock School District to tell state Board of Education members they oppose applications to be heard this week to dramatically expand the number of charter school seats in the Little Rock School District.

by Max Brantley

Mar 9, 2016

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Gospel and R&B singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples, who has been inspiring fans with gospel-inflected freedom songs like "I'll Take You There" and "March Up Freedom's Highway" and the poignant "Oh What a Feeling" will come to Little Rock for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High.

Everything that Donald Trump does — make that everything that he says — is calculated to thrill his lustiest disciples. But he is discovering that what was brilliant for a politician is a miscalculation for a president, because it deepens the chasm between him and most Americans.

Watching the Charlottesville spectacle from halfway across the country, I confess that my first instinct was to raillery. Vanilla ISIS, somebody called this mob of would-be Nazis. A parade of love-deprived nerds marching bravely out of their parents' basements carrying tiki torches from Home Depot.

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A man who says he's a former University of Arkansas student now living in New England has identified himself as the person wearing an "Arkansas Engineering" T-shirt in the Friday white supremacist march in Fayetteville. He apologized for involving UA in the story and to the professor misidentified as being the person wearing the shirt.